General Chat

I do wonder if the situation could be improved if less children were taken into care and just simply adopted.
Of course there are situations where children need temporary care because of home circumstances, but in cases where abuse is found or totally a incompetent parent lets them run riot, a temporary placement is perhaps not the long term answer.

Today at Bristol Crown Court, thirteen men have been jailed for running an inner city sex ring which groomed and sexually abused girls in care.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30078503

There is hardly a week that passes when there is not a case of this kind in the news, having just read the report released today - about young people in care, by Amyas Morse the head of the National Audit Office, I am not surprised that children in care are vulnerable to this kind of exploitation

The report says that the Department for Education is not meeting its objectives to improve the quality of care and the stability of placements for children in care - it appears from the report that the issue of how best to provide for the needs of children who are taken into care, are not being given the priority they should be given - in the extract below note the comment "no progress has been made in the last four years".

Extract from the report by Amyas Morse the head of the National Audit Office:-

“Most children are taken into care because of abuse and neglect. But too many of them are not getting the right placements the first time. If their complex and challenging learning and development needs are not correctly assessed and tackled, the result is likely to be significant long-term detriment to the children themselves as well as cost to society.

No progress has been made in the last four years and if the Department is to break this pattern, then it needs to use its new Innovation Programme to understand what works, especially in terms of early intervention.”

http://www.nao.org.uk/report/children-in-care/

Why is the Department for Education dragging its heels over this issue - could it be because a large number of these children are from poor backgrounds?